In traditional soil remediation, the contaminated soil is excavated using large machinery before it is treated, and involves removal of the soil from the site, and disposal at a licensed disposal facility. Other remediation methods utilize large footprint soil shredding machines or pugmills to breakup excavated soil and introduce chemical oxidant to the material. This method requires a large footprint for equipment and material processing. Many in-situ and ex-situ soil and groundwater remediation technologies require activation of a chemical oxidant using a chelating agent (for example, iron) and/or an acid or base agent sufficient to adjust a pH of the treated soil. Furthermore, soil and groundwater treatment technologies rely on injection technologies to introduce the oxidant and reagents into the ground which results in poor oxidant to mass contact. Thus, traditional remediation soil and groundwater methods involve high cost, are difficult to implement, and add time to remediate the soil and water.
U.S. Patent Publication No. 2009/0087265 entitled “Remediation of Contaminants from In-Situ and Ex-Situ Media” discuses a remediation method using a composition for emulsifying a contaminant ground media, that includes a chelating agent. WIPO Application No. WO2015/170317 entitled “Remediation of Contaminated Soils” discuses a process for treating a soil contaminated with a pollutant with an aqueous solution comprising a combination of hydrogen peroxide and hydroxide source. U.S. Patent Publication No. 2015/0343503 entitled “In-Situ Subsurface Extraction and Decontamination” discusses a method of decontaminating ground media that includes drilling injection and extraction holes into ground media to a particular depth, then injecting a reagent into the injection hole to treat the ground media. The reagent includes a chelating agent. European Application No. EP741611 entitled “Process for Soil Decontamination by Oxidation and Vacuum Extraction” discusses a process for in-situ treatment of a contaminated subsurface zone of the earth containing a contaminant. The method requires vacuum extraction. U.S. Pat. No. 6,276,871 entitled “Soil Remediation Method” discusses a soil remediation method that uses iron in combination with an oxidant. U.S. Patent Publication No. 2008/0008535 entitled “Soil and Water Remediation Method and Apparatus” discusses a method, apparatus and system for the remediation of contaminated soils, groundwater and water. A combination of reagents such as persulfate and ozone or persulfate, ozone and hydrogen peroxide may be used to enhance destruction of organic contaminants. U.S. Pat. No. 8,858,806 entitled “Method for Reducing Contamination” discusses methods for reducing a concentration of a contaminant associated with a medium, which can be any substance or material, such as soil, water, air, and/or fluid. The medium is treated with a ferric chelate and an oxidizing agent.
The present invention has advantages over these methods that will become apparent.